WEBVTT - Rep. Gregory Meeks Talks INVEST Act 0:00:02.520 --> 0:00:07.040 Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio News. 0:00:07.920 --> 0:00:10.600 Joining us now with Insight Life from Capitol Hill. Democratic 0:00:10.600 --> 0:00:13.520 Congressman Gregory Weeks of New York. He's ranking member of 0:00:13.600 --> 0:00:17.000 the House Foreign Affairs Committee, member of House Financial Services Committee, 0:00:17.040 --> 0:00:19.640 and so we have a lot to talk about. Congressman, 0:00:19.720 --> 0:00:21.319 it's great to see you. Thanks for being with us 0:00:21.360 --> 0:00:24.360 here on Bloomberg TV and radio. You heard what Eric 0:00:24.600 --> 0:00:26.440 was just telling us here. It looks like we are 0:00:26.480 --> 0:00:29.600 going to go over the cliff. Should our viewers and listeners, 0:00:29.640 --> 0:00:34.000 people who are actually on these plans, these Obamacare plans, 0:00:34.000 --> 0:00:36.879 should they expect this to be their new reality? 0:00:37.880 --> 0:00:40.000 It looks like it. I mean, Democrats have been trying 0:00:40.040 --> 0:00:42.000 to bring the alarm for a long period of time, 0:00:42.520 --> 0:00:45.239 and almost for the last fifteen years. The Republicans have 0:00:45.280 --> 0:00:48.240 said that they had an alternative plan. Yet no one 0:00:48.479 --> 0:00:52.919 has seen them produce anything. And this is something that 0:00:53.520 --> 0:00:56.760 should have been talked about. We've been advocating for it. 0:00:56.800 --> 0:01:00.480 We've been talking about an extension, if nothing else, to 0:01:00.760 --> 0:01:03.960 the tax credit for the Affordable Care Act so that 0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:06.479 it can be figured out or we have more time. 0:01:06.720 --> 0:01:09.560 Republicans have refused to do that. So it just seems 0:01:09.560 --> 0:01:12.360 that they, as we've been saying all along, are in 0:01:12.480 --> 0:01:16.039 complete disarray, and as a result, it's going to hurt 0:01:16.880 --> 0:01:22.160 millions of American citizens when they see their healthcare sometime, 0:01:22.600 --> 0:01:24.959 some of them will double. And this is what we 0:01:24.959 --> 0:01:28.440 were talking about before, and now it's going to become reality. 0:01:29.080 --> 0:01:32.160 So the affordability crisis that we have been talking about 0:01:32.160 --> 0:01:35.319 and President calls a Democrat hoax, it's about to get worse. 0:01:35.400 --> 0:01:37.320 Right if we look at this through a wider frame, 0:01:37.920 --> 0:01:40.920 this feeds into higher costs that people are facing across 0:01:41.000 --> 0:01:41.319 the board. 0:01:41.480 --> 0:01:45.800 Congressman, there's no question, I mean the American people, and 0:01:45.959 --> 0:01:49.120 as we saw when the President was in Pennsylvania just 0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:52.800 recently talking about this is a Democratic hoax, and everyone 0:01:52.840 --> 0:01:56.320 that was spoken with when they left said this is 0:01:56.360 --> 0:02:00.280 not a hoax because they know what their pockets feel like, 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:04.680 they know what their insurance plans are looking like, so 0:02:04.720 --> 0:02:06.840 that they will soon have to make a choice, many 0:02:06.880 --> 0:02:09.720 of them, of whether they continue health care or not 0:02:09.880 --> 0:02:12.680 because they may not be able to afford it. And 0:02:12.760 --> 0:02:17.560 so the crisis is here now that's caused by the 0:02:17.600 --> 0:02:21.080 President of the United States, and unfortunately the President is 0:02:21.120 --> 0:02:25.280 also the facto speaker of the House. So the deputy 0:02:25.280 --> 0:02:28.600 speaker follows the speaker who happens to be the president, 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:32.240 and nothing has been done, and nothing has been at 0:02:32.320 --> 0:02:35.240 least talked about to be for an agreement in a 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:38.600 bipartisan way. And so now we're at on a cliff, 0:02:39.520 --> 0:02:43.200 no conversation, and guess what, January thirtieth is not that 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:43.880 far behind. 0:02:43.919 --> 0:02:48.520 Also, well, you know, we just were talking about the 0:02:48.520 --> 0:02:51.079 possibility of another shutdown, and I don't know if anyone 0:02:51.080 --> 0:02:53.680 has the appetite for that, but I just want to 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:58.440 ask you quickly about one of the options that is 0:02:58.520 --> 0:03:01.880 under consideration in the House of Representatives, realizing these both 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:04.960 failed today. In the Senate, there's a discharge petition that's 0:03:05.000 --> 0:03:08.880 been put up by Brian Fitzpatrick. It's also got a 0:03:08.919 --> 0:03:14.160 Democrat on this as well. It's Brian Fitzpatrick, as I mentioned, 0:03:14.919 --> 0:03:18.880 on the Republican side. If there are enough votes here, 0:03:18.919 --> 0:03:21.400 this could be forced to the floor, Congressman, and it 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:24.760 would extend the Obamacare subsidies by a couple of years, 0:03:24.800 --> 0:03:27.960 but also would add eligibility requirements. Is that something that 0:03:28.000 --> 0:03:29.919 you would vote for if you had the chance. 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:33.000 Well, I haven't seen it. I would have to see it. 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:35.200 Another there's something that they've tried to put together at 0:03:35.200 --> 0:03:39.240 the last second. You know, I think that again here 0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:41.920 we should have had the opportunity to have a dialogue 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:45.880 and a conversation, a negotiation, as opposed to what's taking 0:03:45.920 --> 0:03:49.480 place right now. So I would have to, you know, 0:03:49.880 --> 0:03:52.680 before we get out of here next week, is to 0:03:52.720 --> 0:03:55.120 look at it to make a determination. But you can 0:03:55.240 --> 0:03:59.880 see how Congress is currently operating with this Republican leadership. 0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:02.840 Everything seems to have to be done by a motion 0:04:03.000 --> 0:04:06.720 to discharge. We cannot get anything on the floor so 0:04:06.760 --> 0:04:11.000 that we can vote in regular order. It is such 0:04:11.400 --> 0:04:14.360 craziness that's going on now. I've been in Washington for 0:04:14.360 --> 0:04:16.839 a long time, a member of Congress for twenty seven years, 0:04:17.040 --> 0:04:20.559 and I've never seen anything like this. And so though 0:04:20.960 --> 0:04:23.440 I believe a number of votes if we had the 0:04:23.520 --> 0:04:26.520 opportunity to vote for them on the floor, the Speaker 0:04:26.640 --> 0:04:29.160 and the President has blocked them. And so the only 0:04:29.240 --> 0:04:32.360 recourse that members are having is to try to work 0:04:32.440 --> 0:04:35.680 with motions to discharge and get two hundred and eighteen votes. 0:04:35.880 --> 0:04:38.960 That's what took place with the Epstein vote. 0:04:39.680 --> 0:04:42.200 Congress, when I want you to put on your foreign 0:04:42.279 --> 0:04:45.040 relations cap here and talk to US about what's happening 0:04:45.080 --> 0:04:47.720 off the coast of Venezuela. Because the United States has 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:51.240 decided to seize an oil tanker. The President says that 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:54.359 we will probably keep the oil. There are questions about 0:04:54.360 --> 0:04:56.640 what happens to the crew and whether more of these 0:04:56.640 --> 0:04:59.200 are about to happen. The US has just sanctioned six 0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:04.200 more of these. The way things work now in the Caribbean, well. 0:05:04.000 --> 0:05:07.599 Look, they are illegal in the way that it's working now. 0:05:08.080 --> 0:05:10.560 I think that number one, you know, you first heard 0:05:10.640 --> 0:05:14.000 that the president was down off the coast of Venezuela 0:05:14.080 --> 0:05:18.040 because of drugs. Clearly, by taking this oil tanker, it's 0:05:18.080 --> 0:05:21.080 not about drugs, And clearly you could you should have 0:05:21.160 --> 0:05:23.680 seen if you could take an oil tanker in the 0:05:23.720 --> 0:05:26.080 way that they have that you don't have to shoot 0:05:26.320 --> 0:05:29.440 down boats in the way and kill people in the 0:05:29.440 --> 0:05:32.920 way that they have. So it is not about drugs. 0:05:33.560 --> 0:05:38.080 It's about regime change to one degree and taking access 0:05:38.400 --> 0:05:42.839 to Venezuelan oil. Those seem to be the main motivations 0:05:43.160 --> 0:05:46.039 of the President of the United States. And this is 0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:49.919 not the way that we generally have historically operated in 0:05:49.960 --> 0:05:53.960 the United States. This is really how Russia operates, and 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:56.400 so we are losing our values, as we've seen from 0:05:56.440 --> 0:06:02.640 the National Security report that came out that says, you know, Russia, China, 0:06:02.680 --> 0:06:05.160 and the United States forget about our friends and allies 0:06:05.160 --> 0:06:07.440 and how do we work with them. So all of 0:06:07.440 --> 0:06:11.000 this is coming to a head right now. So I 0:06:11.040 --> 0:06:15.360 strongly disagree, and I think the American people disagree. The 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:18.520 President should be comingto Congress if this is a war 0:06:18.640 --> 0:06:20.880 that he's trying to get us into. That's why I 0:06:20.920 --> 0:06:23.719 do have a bill dealing with a War Powers Act, 0:06:23.920 --> 0:06:26.200 so that the demand is that the President comes and 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:29.440 talk to Congress and stop trying to work around Congress 0:06:29.520 --> 0:06:32.039 to avoid us, so that we can do our oversight 0:06:32.760 --> 0:06:34.440 responsibility in appropriate way. 0:06:34.640 --> 0:06:36.640 When does that go to the floor, Congressman, and will 0:06:36.680 --> 0:06:38.239 you get a single Republican vote? 0:06:39.480 --> 0:06:42.400 Well, I think that we would get it. We're working 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:46.599 diligent now talking to other members. And that's why the 0:06:47.040 --> 0:06:51.240 Speaker refuses to allow the bill on the floor because 0:06:51.279 --> 0:06:53.919 he knows if it reaches the floor, we would have 0:06:54.000 --> 0:06:57.040 a strong bipartisan vote, and so that's why they try 0:06:57.080 --> 0:06:59.839 to block it and make rules that will not allow 0:07:00.160 --> 0:07:02.560 bill to come to the floor at the appropriate time. 0:07:04.240 --> 0:07:07.680 You know, you mentioned Russia. Vladimir Putin is on the 0:07:07.680 --> 0:07:13.160 phone with with Maduro expressing solidarity today. In fact, they 0:07:13.200 --> 0:07:15.520 went back to this strategic treaty that was signed in 0:07:15.600 --> 0:07:18.440 May to talk about how this can be exploited more, 0:07:18.480 --> 0:07:21.480 confirming their commitment to joint projects and trade the economy, 0:07:21.680 --> 0:07:24.680 energy and other areas. Is Vladimir Putin about to make 0:07:24.720 --> 0:07:25.680 this more complicated? 0:07:27.120 --> 0:07:30.040 Well, he is. I mean, look, and there's some reason 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:32.480 why the President of the United States, you know, we 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:37.520 see that Russia's already killing Ukrainians on a daily basis, 0:07:37.560 --> 0:07:41.680 just about Russia is now joining hands with Nicholas Maduro, 0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:44.480 and why the President of the United States is not 0:07:44.720 --> 0:07:48.280 standing strong and making sure that you know, you talk 0:07:48.320 --> 0:07:53.560 about using power, you know, to control the situation. Yet 0:07:53.600 --> 0:07:56.680 he just seems to bow down to the will of 0:07:56.760 --> 0:07:59.800 Russia and whatever Russia says. And Russia can do whatever 0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:03.400 they want. And it's okay with this administration, but it's 0:08:03.400 --> 0:08:06.160 not okay with the American people. It's not okay with 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:08.480 Democrats in the House and the Senate. And we're going 0:08:08.520 --> 0:08:10.360 to make sure that we have those voices. And I 0:08:10.400 --> 0:08:14.240 would hope that some of my Republican colleagues would finally 0:08:14.320 --> 0:08:18.040 join us and stand with us to hold this president 0:08:18.080 --> 0:08:21.840 accountable and make sure that we keep the highest standards 0:08:21.840 --> 0:08:25.000 and moral that we have with our European allies and others. 0:08:26.080 --> 0:08:28.280 I don't know if that'll cover the seizure of oil 0:08:28.320 --> 0:08:30.680 tankers like we saw a congressmen, But if this did 0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:33.520 in fact come from a shadow fleet, if this boat 0:08:33.600 --> 0:08:36.760 was operating illegally, do we owe that oil back to 0:08:36.840 --> 0:08:38.520 somebody and what happens to the crew? 0:08:39.840 --> 0:08:42.600 Well, look, I will tell you generally, in all of 0:08:42.640 --> 0:08:45.960 the time that I've been in Congress before, before this 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:49.719 is done, there is at least with the Intelligence Committee, 0:08:49.880 --> 0:08:52.480 sometimes with the Armed Services Committee, and sometimes with the 0:08:52.520 --> 0:08:55.760 Florid and Affairs Committee, and sometimes in a combination thereof, 0:08:56.160 --> 0:09:00.000 and definitely with both Democrat and Republican leadership in the House, 0:09:00.600 --> 0:09:03.360 there is a dialogue in conversation. They go in the 0:09:03.360 --> 0:09:07.559 skiff or go down to the White House and they 0:09:07.600 --> 0:09:09.880 have a dialogue and they talk and they plan and 0:09:10.400 --> 0:09:13.160 at least indicate what they intent on doing. And in 0:09:13.200 --> 0:09:17.200 this situation is just chaos where you have a president 0:09:17.280 --> 0:09:20.160 who's just running a monk, doing whatever he wants to 0:09:20.200 --> 0:09:26.120 do and oftentimes violating the normal States, and I believe 0:09:26.240 --> 0:09:27.880 also violating the rules of law. 0:09:29.320 --> 0:09:32.000 I want to ask you about the invest Act while 0:09:32.000 --> 0:09:34.240 you're with us, Congressman, because you've got a lot of 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:36.640 small business owners who are watching and listening right now. 0:09:36.640 --> 0:09:40.440 And I just talked about the state of small business 0:09:40.679 --> 0:09:43.480 with the head of the SBA, Kelly Leffler. Here's what 0:09:43.559 --> 0:09:44.160 she told us. 0:09:44.559 --> 0:09:48.960 Between tax cuts, deregulation, fair trade, we see jobs and 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:52.240 opportunities coming back to America and then eighteen trillion dollars 0:09:52.320 --> 0:09:54.640 of investment coming in. A lot of that's going to 0:09:54.640 --> 0:09:57.840 play out on main street and that's why small business optimism, 0:09:57.920 --> 0:10:00.840 according to the US Chamber, is at all time highs. 0:10:01.440 --> 0:10:04.120 And you've got consumer confidence on the rise again, so 0:10:04.280 --> 0:10:07.679 consumers know that the best is yet to come first. 0:10:07.720 --> 0:10:09.679 What she told us argues with a lot of the 0:10:09.760 --> 0:10:13.280 data that we're seeing, Congressmen. The invest Acts, cuts red tape, 0:10:13.320 --> 0:10:16.640 expands access to capital. Will that helps small business owners 0:10:16.640 --> 0:10:17.760 get their own high prices. 0:10:18.559 --> 0:10:20.640 But that's what we want to do because we know 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:23.800 that the policies that the president's putting forward now, for 0:10:23.840 --> 0:10:27.920 example with his tariffs, if you spoke to any small business, 0:10:28.000 --> 0:10:32.320 you know the cost to the small businesses have steadily increased, 0:10:32.360 --> 0:10:37.080 it's not decreased, their increased causing them problems. The instability 0:10:37.600 --> 0:10:42.880 and the uncertainty of the president's policies is costing small 0:10:42.920 --> 0:10:45.480 businesses a lot of money. They don't not know, they 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:48.520 can't you know, get the right inventory, They don't know 0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:50.280 how much to buy because how much is going to 0:10:50.360 --> 0:10:53.640 cost going up. So as I speak to small businesses, 0:10:54.360 --> 0:10:59.920 this administration's policies have been devastating to them and devastating 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:03.320 to the American consumer. And so that's why I was 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:05.920 glad to be able to work with some of our 0:11:06.000 --> 0:11:09.080 Republican colleagues on the Financial Services Committee so that we 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:12.880 can do something for small businesses get access to help 0:11:12.960 --> 0:11:16.240 them get access to capital, and for those individuals also 0:11:16.600 --> 0:11:20.280 who have four to one k's or iras for helping 0:11:20.320 --> 0:11:22.760 them with their retirements. And so we're trying to make 0:11:22.800 --> 0:11:25.200 sure that we are reaching to the small business and 0:11:25.200 --> 0:11:29.000 the average everyday worker, like sixty two percent of them 0:11:29.040 --> 0:11:31.320 who are invested in the markets. So it's not just 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:34.679 the super rich friends of the president that having benefits, 0:11:34.840 --> 0:11:37.400 but it is the working people of America. And that's 0:11:37.400 --> 0:11:40.040 what we're trying to do there because clearly the president's 0:11:40.040 --> 0:11:41.280 policies are not working. 0:11:42.360 --> 0:11:44.040 Well, I know it's a bipart is an effort. Right now, 0:11:44.080 --> 0:11:45.400 I'd like to stay in touch with you on that. 0:11:45.440 --> 0:11:48.640 Democratic Congressman Gregory Meeks of New York, We thank you 0:11:48.720 --> 0:11:49.120 so much.